Kenneth J. Saltman

Publications

Selected Publications

Kenneth J. Saltman is the author, editor, and co-editor of a substantial body of scholarship in educational policy, politics, privatization, critical pedagogy, democracy, and technology. His work spans books, journal articles, handbooks, book chapters, public scholarship, and invited commentary.

Recent Books

  • AI Schools and the New Child Labor (Cambridge University Press, 2026)
  • The Politics of Education: A Critical Introduction, Third Edition (Routledge, 2025)
  • Smart Drugs, Attention Doping, and Screen Addicts (Bloomsbury, 2025)
  • The Disaster of Resilience (Bloomsbury, 2023)
  • The Alienation of Fact (MIT Press, 2022)
  • The Swindle of Innovative Educational Finance (University of Minnesota Press, 2018)
  • The Politics of Education: A Critical Introduction, Second Edition (Routledge, 2018)
  • Scripted Bodies (Routledge, 2016)
  • The Failure of Corporate School Reform (Routledge, 2012)
  • The Gift of Education (Palgrave Macmillan, 2010)
  • Capitalizing on Disaster (Routledge, 2007)

Selected Journal Articles

  • Saltman, K. J. (2021). Education, new technology, and the paranoid politics of disinterested objectivity. Symploke, 29(1), 143–162.
  • Saltman, K. J. (2020). AI and the technological turn of public school privatization: In defence of democratic education. London Review of Education, 18(2), 196–208.
  • Saltman, K. J. (2020). Salvational super-agents and conspiratorial secret-agents: Conspiracy, theory, and fantasies of control. Symploke, 28(1–2), 51–63.
  • Saltman, K. J. (2018). “Privilege-checking,” “virtue-signaling,” and “safe spaces”: What happens when cultural politics is privatized and the body replaces argument. Symploke, 26, 403–409.
  • Saltman, K. J. (2017). The promise and realities of pay for success/social impact bonds. Education Policy Analysis Archives, 25(59).
  • Saltman, K. J. (2016). Corporate schooling meets corporate media: Standards, testing and technophilia. Review of Education, Pedagogy, Cultural Studies, 38(2), 105–123.
  • Saltman, K. J. (2015). Learning from the neoliberal movement: Toward a global justice education movement. Journal of Educational Administration and History, 47(3), 315–326.
  • Saltman, K. J. (2014). The austerity school: Grit, character, and the privatization of public education. Symploke, 22(1–2), 41–57.
  • Saltman, K. J. (2014). Neoliberalism and corporate school reform: Failure and creative destruction. Review of Education, Pedagogy, Cultural Studies, 36(4), 249–259.
  • Saltman, K. J. (2012). Why Henry Giroux’s democratic pedagogy is crucial for confronting failed corporate school reform. Policy Futures in Education, 10(6).
  • Giroux, H. A., & Saltman, K. J. (2009). Obama’s betrayal of public education? Critical Methodologies and Cultural Studies, 9(6), 772–779.
  • Saltman, K. J. (2008). Capitalizing on disaster. JAC, 28, 11–27.
  • Saltman, K. J. (2007). Schooling in disaster capitalism: How the political right is using disaster to privatize public schooling. Teacher Education Quarterly, 34(2), 131–156.
  • Saltman, K. J. (2006). The right-wing attack on critical and public education in the United States: From neoliberalism to neoconservatism. Cultural Politics, 2(3), 339–358.
  • Saltman, K. J. (2004). Coca-Cola’s global lessons: From education for corporate globalization to education for global justice. Teacher Education Quarterly, 31(1), 155–172.
  • Saltman, K. J. (2002). Junk-king education. Cultural Studies, 16, 233–258.

Selected Book Chapters

  • Means, A. J., & Saltman, K. J. (2022). Neoliberal crisis, the populist moment, and the challenge of educational leadership. In Populism and Educational Leadership, Administration, and Policy.
  • Saltman, K. J., & Means, A. J. (2021). Corporatization and educational leadership. In Understanding Educational Leadership: Critical Perspectives and Approaches.
  • Saltman, K. J. (2020). Opposition to curriculum structured by neoliberal globalization. In Oxford Encyclopedia of Curriculum Studies.
  • Saltman, K. J. (2020). Critical pedagogy against the privatization of culture and politics. In Critical Pedagogy in Uncertain Times, Second Edition.
  • Saltman, K. J. (2020). Anti-theory and conspiracy theory. In Understanding Adorno, Understanding Modernism.
  • Saltman, K. J. (2018). Austerity politics and the neoliberal targeting of the body in public education. In The Debt Age.
  • Saltman, K. J. (2017). The corporate false promise of technoutopia: The case of Amplify. In Corporate Elites and the Reform of Public Education.
  • Saltman, K. J., & Means, A. J. (2017). From data-driven to democracy-driven educational leadership. In Wiley-Blackwell International Handbook of Educational Leadership.
  • Saltman, K. J. (2015). Democratic education against corporate school reform. In Transformative Researchers and Educators for Democracy.
  • Saltman, K. J. (2015). The new two-tiered education system in the United States. In The Routledge Handbook of Poverty in the United States.
  • Saltman, K. J. (2011). The rise of venture philanthropy and the ongoing neoliberal assault on public education. In The Assault on Public Education.
  • Saltman, K. J. (2010). From Carnegie to Gates: The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the venture philanthropy agenda for public education. In The Gates Foundation and the Future of Public Schools.
  • Saltman, K. J. (2009). Corporatization and the control of schools. In The Routledge International Handbook of Critical Education.
  • Saltman, K. J. (2007). Privatization. In Knowledge and Power in the Global Economy, Second Edition.

Selected Edited Volumes and Handbooks

  • The Routledge Handbook of Critical Approaches to the Politics and Policy of Education (Routledge, 2022)
  • The Wiley Handbook of Global Education Reform (Wiley-Blackwell, 2018)
  • Education as Enforcement: The Militarization and Corporatization of Schools, Second Edition (Routledge, 2010)
  • Schooling and the Politics of Disaster (Routledge, 2007)
  • The Critical Middle School Reader (Routledge, 2005)
  • Education as Enforcement: The Militarization and Corporatization of Schools (Routledge, 2003)

Public Writing and Commentary

Saltman has also written for public-facing venues including Truthout, CounterPunch, BillMoyers.com, and The Washington Post’s education blog. His public scholarship has addressed educational finance, venture philanthropy, pay for success schemes, student income loans, attention and pharmaceuticalization, and corporate school reform.

Areas of Ongoing Scholarship

  • AI and digital schooling
  • Digital educational privatization
  • Privatization and market reform
  • Democracy and authoritarianism in education
  • Critical pedagogy and cultural politics
  • Educational finance and venture philanthropy
  • Media, ideology, and schooling
  • Schooling, disaster, and crisis capitalism
  • Attention, subjectivity, and screen culture

Full Curriculum Vitae

A full CV including books, articles, chapters, invited talks, awards, doctoral supervision, and professional service is available upon request.